1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a microfilm searching reader, or an electronic dictionary, comprising input means provided with character keys for receiving character input a microfilm incorporating the pages of a dictionary, means provided with a screen for projecting the image of the microfilm, and means for searching a frame of the microfilm in response to the character input to give an instruction to the projecting means, thereby enabling the searching and projection on the screen of a desired page of the dictionary containing a word related with the character input performed by the character keys.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the prior art there has not been known such an electronic dictionary. There have been proposed, however, various devices utilizing a microfilm and searching an image containing desired information to perform a function similar to that of the electronic dictionary.
For example there has been proposed a device wherein a microfilmed dictionary is mounted on an electrically driven carrier and a film displaying key is actuated to drive the carrier until a page containing a desired word will visually be searched on the screen.
Also there has been known a device in which the table of contents or index of a dictionary is recorded in the first frame of a microfilm, by means of which the desired frame number is searched and utilized for the key input to the device.
These two devices, requiring a long period of time for searching or necessitating the two-step procedure, do not necessarily offer an advantage in comparison with the use of an ordinary dictionary.
Further, there has been known a system wherein the microfilmed images and the catchword memory containing catchwords for searching a desired image are both recorded on the same microfilm. Such a system, however, requires a space for the catchword memory on the microfilm and has a difficulty in the stable scanning of the catchword memory.
Further, U.S. Pat. No. 3,612,676 issued on Oct. 12, 1971 to Ooba et al. discloses a dictionary-reading device which utilizes separate media for the microfilm and for the catchword memory, but such a device requires a complicated and expensive mechanism as the catchwords are recorded on an optical medium and retrieved by 5-bit parallel read-out.